What are You Waiting For?

“I never had to change a word of what I got up in the middle of the night to write.”

The above words of wisdom were just a few of the many shared at this year’s Maui Writers Conference — the finest in the world. What Cannes is to the film industry, MWC is to the publishing industry.

Our opening and closing keynoter this year was the inimitable Bryce Courtenay — the author of POWER OF ONE –the 5th biggest selling book on Amazon.com the past 15 years, just after To Kill a Mockingbird.

Part of Bryce’s message was “Writing is a perishable skill.”

Have you always wanted to write a book? Are you putting it off until the kids go to college, you retire or you’re not so busy?

What makes you think your writing skills will still be there when you’re finally ready to write?

A recurring theme at this year’s Maui Writers Conference (www.MauiWriters.com) is that authors write — no matter what. They write in the middle of the night, they get up at 5 am and write before they go to work, they write when they’re tired, they write when times are tough.

Jacquelyn Mitchard, the first Oprah pick with her book The Deep End of the Ocean, wrote in her kitchen even when her husband died at age 39 and left her with 3 young children and no life or health insurance.

Steve Berry, author of The Templar Legacy and The Amber Room, wrote even after he received 86 rejection letters from dozens of different publishers.

If you’ve always wanted to write a book, if you have ideas or insights you want to share; don’t wait for perfect circumstances that may never come. Start writing today and continue writing every day — no matter how tired, busy or overwhelmed you are.

In my 16 years of helping people get their book out of their head and into the world — I have never met any who were sorry they wrote their book. I’ve only met people who were sorry they didn’t write it. . . sooner.